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A research team from the Dept of Pharmacy at NUS Faculty of Science, Duke-NUS Medical School, National Cancer Centre Singapore and Singapore General Hospital found that a laboratory-synthesised chemical substance called C7 can be used to increase the number of stem cells harvested from umbilical cords. This will help overcome a current challenge of cell levels being too low to help patients recover.

Prof Zheng Yongnian, Director of the East Asian Institute at NUS, opined that the political reforms which were introduced after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, were in response to what had happened prior to the Congress, such as corruption that is on the rise within the ruling party.

Dr Zhang Weina from the Department of Finance at NUS Business School opined that impact investing is an alternative but important consideration for investors who care about the environmental and social impact of their capital investment.

At the 29th Singapore Economic Roundtable organised by the Institute of Policy Studies at NUS and The Business Times, economists flagged key risks on the horizon, including rising oil prices due to geopolitical uncertainties, as well as faster-than-expected interest rate hikes which could destabilise financial markets in the region.

Practice Prof Kishore Mahbubani from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy opined that a trade war between China and the US remains a real possibility and that China’s calm and rational policies towards the US in the past 20 years may not work well in the next 20.

Assoc Prof Sing Tien Foo, Director of the Institute of Real Estate at NUS School of Design and Environment, opined that buyers and sellers of HDB flats should come to term with the changing reality that flat values may not always continue to rise with time, and the government would also not always be there to “bail out” their ageing flats through the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme.

Prof Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, Provost’s Chair Professor from the Dept of Sociology at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Director of the Centre for Family and Population Research (CFPR) at NUS, and Dr Shu Hu, Research Fellow from CFPR, highlighted the changes and challenges in Singapore’s family and population structures such as high childlessness rate and discussed the factors against marriage. The authors opined that some fundamental cultural shifts and institutional adaptations are imperative to raise marriage and fertility rates. Prof Yeung and Dr Hu discussed these issues in a new book which they have edited, titled “Family And Population Changes In Singapore”.

Mr Pranay Gupta, Research Consultant at the Centre for Asset Management Research and Investments at NUS observed that people in almost every developed country do not seem to have enough assets to fund their retirement. He proposed that spending and saving can be of equal convenience and importance if one can use the same pipes to spend and save money. He further suggested that all investment products should only have a description of target gain and maximum loss and to do away with market benchmarks.

Mr Koh Wei Shao, a Year 3 student from the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, is involved in the Health and Life-skills Outreach (Halo) programme organised by the Ministry of Health to promote nursing as a career to 500 students from 16 secondary schools and junior colleges. The programme will be held at the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies till 25 May 2018.